Seeing is Deceiving
The Psychology of Visual Illusions
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Book Description
In this volume, originally published in 1978, the authors survey the historical and contemporary research literature pertaining to two-dimensional visual-geometric illusions. They bring together much of the known data, summarising and evaluating theories that have been offered to explain these phenomena. Coren and Girgus provide a new conceptual framework that suggest that visual illusions are not unitary phenomena. Within this framework, illusions do not represent a breakdown in normal perceptual processing. Rather, it is proposed that each illusion is produced by a number of mechanisms operating at different levels in the visual information processing system. The book contains an extensive collection of illusion figures. It will be essential reading for all of those concerned with vision and visual perception, since it integrates the study of illusions into the main body of psychological and perceptual theories at the time.
Table of Contents
Preface. 1. A Brief History of Visual Illusions 2. Size Illusions 3. Direction, Location, and Shape Illusions 4. Structural Factors in Illusion Formation: Optical Contributions 5. Structural Factors in Illusion Formation: Retinal Components 6. Structural Components in Illusion Formation: Central Neural Mechanisms 7. Illusions and Picture Processing Strategies 8. Global Impression and Averaging Strategies 9. Contrast and Difference Extraction Strategies 10. Composite Strategies, Perceptual Fields, and Quantitative Theories 11. Information, Sampling in Illusion Formation and Destruction 12. The Psychoanatomy of Visual Illusions 13. Toward a Taxonomy of Visual Illusions 14. Illusions: Implications and Extrapolations. References. Author Index. Subject Index.
Author(s)
Biography
Stanley Coren, Joan Girgus